Have Resolve Through Jesus To Overcome Obstacles – Waiting Or Giving Up Are Not Options!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<God, through Azariah, said to Asa,> “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”’ (2 Chronicles 15:7); ‘(1) Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. (2) As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.’ (1 Peter 4:1-2)

All of us see and experience many examples of obstacles in the path of accomplishing goals or desires, especially Godly desires that we pursue.  The mortgage on our church is large and lingers, and appears it will never be paid off, or when it’s paid off it will be time to rebuild and another mortgage will take the place of the initial one.  We’ve lived with the threats of terrorism and ‘wokeness’ policies.  Social and moral decay widens the differences between the secular and Biblical worldview.

We also have obstacles in our personal lives; age, health, and financial dilemmas, in addition to family relationships can stop us in our plans, and sometimes we just want to give up trying.  ‘What’s the use?’, or ‘Why try when it’s not going to work?’ are questions we ask ourselves, or to our friends and colleagues, when facing such barriers to moving forward in Faith.

The answer for us who Believe is in our Faith of Jesus to deliver us.  We know we who are Faithful will eventually be delivered at the point of death, when we are united with Jesus for Eternity in His Kingdom.  It may also be in the planning of some to stop trying to face the obstacles and wait it out in anticipation of the Rapture or the Second Coming, when we who Believe are taken away ‘in a blink of an eye when the trumpet sounds’ (1 Corinthians 15:52).

But it is not for us to simply wait out the clock and die, or not do anything but sit life out until we hear the trumpet sound.  Jesus can and will deliver us before these two events are finalized.  I thought my mother, for example would pass soon after my father did, as she was in poor health.  Instead, she lived for twenty-one years after his passing, at the age of ninety-four. 

Thankfully, she did many firsts in those years, flying on an airplane, and more importantly, publicly acknowledging Jesus as her Lord and Savior and being baptized in the Gulf of Mexico, er, America.   Had she given up and died sooner, she could have missed out on seeing her grandchildren graduating, or her great-grandson’s birth and growth into his elementary years.

Some focus on the signs they see that immediately point to the Rapture’s occurrence, but the truth is since Jesus’ Ascension, forty days after His Resurrection (which we will celebrate and remember this Easter), Christians have had the belief the Rapture would occur in their lifetime, and one day for a generation of Believers this will come true but it may not be ours.  It may be tomorrow or it may be hundreds of years in the future.  Jesus doesn’t want us to sit and wait, but to move forward in our lives and in the pursuit of providing His Gospel message of Salvation to the world.

God does not want us to simply stop and wait or give up, especially when faced with obstacles that come in front of us.  In the case of Asa, Judah’s King and David’s great-grandson in the passage of 1 Chronicles 15, he faced such an obstacle.  The nation of Israel had split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel, composed of nine tribes; and the southern kingdom of Judah, comprising of the tribes of Benjamin, Simeon, and its namesake Judah.  Israel had become a pagan nation, rejecting God and deporting the Levites back to Judah and Jerusalem.  Unfortunately, paganism had infiltrated Judah as well, with Ba’al temples and Asherah poles popping up throughout the kingdom.

Asa had just prayed for God to deliver Judah from the hands of the Cushites (a people originating from southern Egypt/Sudan/Ethiopia), and God defeated Cush and pushed them from the land (1 Chronicles 14).  Now God, after the battle ended, spoke through the prophet Azariah, telling Asa ‘The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.’ (1 Chronicles 15:2).  In other words, God would stick with Asa as long as Asa would stick with God.  The growth of paganism in Judah was large, but God, in 2 Chronicles 15:7, gave Asa encouragement, to stay strong, not give up, and keep moving forward.

Thus, Asa moved forward and removed most of the altars and poles of the false gods and idols, and with God’s provision repaired the outer altar on the portico (or ‘front porch’) of the Temple.  He also removed his grandmother Maakah from the position of ‘queen mother’ and her personal Asherah pole that she illicitly worshipped.  He moved to place Judah back on the path of God and His leadership. 

Until Asa turned away from God years later, trusting his own provisions instead of God’s and partnering with the Aram and their king Ben-Hadad to defend against Israel’s incursion, God removed the obstacles to peace for Asa and Judah.  When Asa turned away from God, God turned away from Asa, unfortunately for both Asa and Judah.

The Apostle Peter, in his first epistle, gives us what Asa was given through Azariah.  Peter gave the early church, both Jew and Gentile followers, instructions on how to live along with a ‘pep talk’ to persevere and live with resolve, through the example of Jesus through His suffering and death, leading to His resurrection.  1 Peter 4:1-2 tells us that Jesus suffered and as his followers, we will suffer also.   We often think of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, but before that he suffered rejection, humiliation, and ridicule from others.  Physically he suffered hunger and temptation, including the temptation to simply give up.

But Peter emphasizes that Jesus did not give up.  He did not go ‘quietly into the night’ of death, but continued to provide His message of Salvation in words and actions, even to the thief on the cross next to Him and to the Roman troops, who He forgave, upon His final breath.  Jesus did not give up despite the obstacles in front of Him, and even overcame the obstacle of death to provide us the way through Him to overcome it also.

Through God, we can overcome all obstacles in front of us.  There is no obstacle big enough for God to tear down.  A dollar amount, a health issue, or a failing relationship, is no match if we have Faith in God’s overwhelming ability to overcome it and resolve the problems we face.  As long as we use our God-math (God + me, or God + us = Infinite Majority), we can overcome anything in our path. 

Death and Jesus coming to collect His church are both inevitable, but until either comes knocking on our front door, we need to continue to do the work of the Great Commission and provide the Salvation message of the Gospel to as many as we can before time runs out.  Don’t give up, or sit and wait for the clock to tick – go do what you can for the cause of Jesus and His Gospel, and have Faith, resolve, and patience in God and His will.